Zande poisoned arrow
Other views of this artifact:
Accession Number:
1934.8.109
Country:
Sudan
Region:
[Southern Sudan] Western Equatoria near Tambura
Cultural Group:
Zande
Date Made:
By 1933
Materials:
Poison , Iron Metal , Cane Plant , Plant Fibre , Resin Plant
Process:
Forged (Metal) , Hammered , Carved , Notched , Bound , Decorated
Dimensions:
Total L = 479; visible arrowhead L = 107, L blade = 32, W = 12.3, th = 1.5; tang diam = 3.5, tang binding L = 16; shaft L = 372, diam = 7.6, upper binding = 51, lower binding preserved L = 11 mm [RTS 7/6/2005].
Weight:
10.6 g
Local Name:
pima
Other Owners:
Collected by Percy Horace Gordon Powell-Cotton and his wife on 29th April 1933 during a shooting expedition
Field Collector:
Percy Horace Gordon Powell-Cotton & Hannah Powell-Cotton (nee Brayton)
PRM Source:
Percy Horace Gordon Powell-Cotton
Acquired:
Donated 1934
Collected Date:
29th April 1933
Description:
Arrow consisting of an iron arrowhead with blunted tip and triangular blade with ogee-shaped section, ending in 2 sharp barbs at its base.
This is set on a long tang, that has a square section at the top, then becomes round part way down the body.
The base of the tang has been bound in a fibre strip, and the whole surface of blade and tang coated with a dark material that is said to be poisonous.
This obscures some of the surface details, but the raised central part of the blade has been lightly chiselled to roughen the edge, with similar work down either edge of the flat upper part of the tang.
The tang fits into the top of a hollow, yellow cane shaft (Pantone 7509C).
The upper part of this has also been bound in plant fibre, which appears to be coated with a reddish brown fixative (Pantone 4625C), that has also stained some of the shaft body.
At the lower end, there is a shorter section of similar binding, with the shaft broken immediately below, where one would expect to find a nock.
The arrow is otherwise complete.
It has a weight of 10.6 grams and a total length of 479 mm.
The visible part of the arrowhead is 107 mm long, with the blade portion being 32 mm long, 12.3 mm wide and 1.5 mm thick at the centre, while the tang has a diameter of 3.5 mm.
The shaft is 372 mm long, with a diameter of 7.6 mm; the fibre binding at the base of the tang is around 16 mm long and has a diameter of 4.3 mm, while that around the upper shaft is 51 mm long, and the butt binding has a length of 11 mm preserved.
Collected by Percy Horace Gordon Powell-Cotton and his wife Hannah on the road to Tambura, on 29th April 1933 during a shooting expedition. He collected a bow (see 1934.8.107) and a group of 10 arrows at the same time (see 1934.8.108-117).
According to Larken, by the 1920's bows and arrows had fallen out of general use amongst the Zande, and those he did see were all "short and not very stiff, none exceeding three feet in length". He gives the local term for bow as mboto (Powell-Cotton calls it the botto, which is probably the same term), and for arrow as guanza , describing the latter as follows: "The arrowheads were serrated and barbed, about two or three inches long, the shafts of gbagi grass or perhaps of millet stalk, about two feet in length. The heads were inserted and the ends of the shafts bound with fibre, the binding being painted with an exudation from the root of the kao tree as a protection. Poison was used on them, and they were carried in small quivers of skin (P.M. Larken, 1926, "An Account of the Zande", Sudan Notes and Records IX no. 1, p. 41). Powell-Cotton, on the other hand, gave the Zande term for this type of poisoned arrow as pima.
For another type of Zande arrow, known as mamara , see 1934.8.119.
Rachael Sparks 29/8/2005.
Collected by Percy Horace Gordon Powell-Cotton and his wife Hannah on the road to Tambura, on 29th April 1933 during a shooting expedition. He collected a bow (see 1934.8.107) and a group of 10 arrows at the same time (see 1934.8.108-117).
According to Larken, by the 1920's bows and arrows had fallen out of general use amongst the Zande, and those he did see were all "short and not very stiff, none exceeding three feet in length". He gives the local term for bow as mboto (Powell-Cotton calls it the botto, which is probably the same term), and for arrow as guanza , describing the latter as follows: "The arrowheads were serrated and barbed, about two or three inches long, the shafts of gbagi grass or perhaps of millet stalk, about two feet in length. The heads were inserted and the ends of the shafts bound with fibre, the binding being painted with an exudation from the root of the kao tree as a protection. Poison was used on them, and they were carried in small quivers of skin (P.M. Larken, 1926, "An Account of the Zande", Sudan Notes and Records IX no. 1, p. 41). Powell-Cotton, on the other hand, gave the Zande term for this type of poisoned arrow as pima.
For another type of Zande arrow, known as mamara , see 1934.8.119.
Rachael Sparks 29/8/2005.
Primary Documentation:
Accession Book Entry
[p.
248] 1934 [insert] 8 [end insert] -
MAJOR P.
H.
G.
POWELL-COTTON
, Quex Park, Birchington, E.
Kent.
Specimens collected by himself & Mrs Cotton, during hunting trips, 1933, viz: [...] [p.
260] - From the
ZANDE
tribe, LIRANGO, YAMBIO, DINGBA & TAMBURA [...] [insert] 108-117 [end insert] - [One of] 10 arrows,
pima
, double-
tanged
barbed, tanged & poisoned iron heads, no feathers, nocked and bound butts.
Belong to above bow [1934.8.107] (1012).
Card Catalogue Entry - There is no further information on the tribes or object catalogue cards [RTS 27/7/2004].
Pitt Rivers Museum label - AFRICA, Sudan, road to Tambura. ZANDE tribe. Poisoned iron arrow on cane shaft. No. 1012. Don. P.H.G. Powell-Cotton, 1934.8.109 [plastic coated label, tied to object; RTS 6/6/2005].
Written on object - 1012 [pencil]; Pima , ZANDE, TAMBURA. d.d. Major Powell-Cotton, 1934 (1012) [ink; RTS 6/6/2005].
Related Documents File - Typewritten List of "Curios Presented to Dr. Balfour by Major & Mrs. Powell-Cotton. Zande Tribe". This object appears as item 1012: “Bow, flat back, fibre string, 2'11", native name Botto, 10 arrows, 1'7", double barbed, all poisoned, native name Pima , 29/4/33 Road to Tambura, 5.35 N 27.30 E". Also contains details of a cine film 'some tribes of the Southern Sudan', taken by Powell-Cotton during this 1933 expedition, copies of which are now in the National Film and Television Archive and the Powell-Cotton Museum in Kent [RTS 14/3/2005].
Card Catalogue Entry - There is no further information on the tribes or object catalogue cards [RTS 27/7/2004].
Pitt Rivers Museum label - AFRICA, Sudan, road to Tambura. ZANDE tribe. Poisoned iron arrow on cane shaft. No. 1012. Don. P.H.G. Powell-Cotton, 1934.8.109 [plastic coated label, tied to object; RTS 6/6/2005].
Written on object - 1012 [pencil]; Pima , ZANDE, TAMBURA. d.d. Major Powell-Cotton, 1934 (1012) [ink; RTS 6/6/2005].
Related Documents File - Typewritten List of "Curios Presented to Dr. Balfour by Major & Mrs. Powell-Cotton. Zande Tribe". This object appears as item 1012: “Bow, flat back, fibre string, 2'11", native name Botto, 10 arrows, 1'7", double barbed, all poisoned, native name Pima , 29/4/33 Road to Tambura, 5.35 N 27.30 E". Also contains details of a cine film 'some tribes of the Southern Sudan', taken by Powell-Cotton during this 1933 expedition, copies of which are now in the National Film and Television Archive and the Powell-Cotton Museum in Kent [RTS 14/3/2005].
